Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of Peru, betraying and eventually killing their emperor, Atahualpa. While in Peru, Pizarro also discovered the greatest silver mine in the Americas, the vast majority of which was traded with China, whose economy was based on silver. Like Cortes' conquests, Pizarro's conquests were facilitated by the use of horses, superior weapons, internal struggles, and devastating European diseases like smallpox, against which the Incans had no immunity.